Leelanau County, Michigan, is
not the place it used to be.
There are fewer children in
the county and fewer schools than were here a century ago, while at the same
time there is a larger (and growing) population of older people in comfortable
financial circumstances. Ironically, other than in the building trades, the
rising number of retired “transplants” has not resulted in a matching increase
of opportunities for full-time, year-round employment. It’s possible now, after
all, to live in a specific geographic area almost anywhere in the world without
being forced to support the local economy. Also, many officially “fulltime”
retired residents spend several months a year traveling or in second homes
elsewhere.
There have been other
changes, as has been true in the United States at large.
Leelanau County these days
has a different kind of Republican party from what was here even thirty years
ago, and the local change mirrors that of the present Republican party across
the United States. The county always had a conservative flavor, but old-time
Republicans represented a wide spectrum of views. Recall that Governor Milliken
was a Republican. Someone with Milliken’s moderate views could never even be
nominated by the Republican Party these days, in Michigan or anywhere else in
the country.
The current Leelanau County
Board of Commissioners is a microcosm of broader American politics, with all
the gridlock, hostility, and rejection of “working together” – at least on the
part of the Republican commissioners -- implied by the comparison. I do not lay
the blame on one party with any kind of partisan glee. Look through the glass
sides of the fishbowl. Watch the fish. See what they do, and listen to what
they say.
Party politics used to be
close to irrelevant at the village, township, even the county level, and that
was a good thing. Local politics was about getting things done, not about party
allegiance. We are seeing the death throes of those good old ways.
Until quite recently,
composition of the board was four Republicans and three Democrats. Then one of
the Republicans stepped down. Known as “the swing vote” on the board, that
member had earned the ire of many of her Republican constituents for whom
bipartisanship is anathema. She occasionally voted “with” Democrats! Clearly, she was a traitor and a turncoat! There
were efforts within her party to lead her to the light, but she tired of the
wrangling and resigned rather than cave in to orthodoxy and right-wing
political correctness.
From all appearances, there
are only two “principles” at work today in the ideology of the Republican
party. One is that whatever or whomever Democrats are for, Republicans must
be against. This principle is not limited to matters of fiscal
responsibility: even a measure that would cost nothing must be opposed by
Republicans if brought forth by a Democrat. And a candidate with lifelong
Republican credentials, should he or she stoop to bipartisanship on that or any
other measure, must be drummed out of office and purged from the Party.
The other principle, the
primary principle, the one that is the reason that adherence to other is
demanded, is that government should not do anything – other than, of
course, make war and police borders. But nothing else! And even that border
policing, like policing in general, like schools, like prisons, would be done better,
most Republicans are coming to believe, by private enterprise. Government is
always the problem, never the solution!
One Republican member of the
county board is pleased with the current 3:3 deadlock because it ensures that
the board will be unable to do anything.
Stop and think about this for
a moment. The phrase “do-nothing government” used to be harsh criticism. Today,
from hard line Republicans, it is the highest praise. The right wing aspires to the establishment of do-nothing government.
A naive question may arise:
If you think government is evil, why would you want to be part of government?
Sadly, the question is easily answered: If the do-nothings were to give up
control, government might once again be empowered to act! Hark back to an irony
from the days of the Vietnam conflict: “We had to destroy the village in order
to save it.” Do-nothings must at
all costs keep control of the paralyzed “village” (government) in order to
ensure its power will not revive.
Can county and national
politics be enjoyed simply as a clown show, as some suggest? Should we expect
it to be and accept it as nothing but “sound and fury, signifying nothing”?
Our country has long
proclaimed itself the leader of the free world. We promote our political system
as an example to other countries, to peoples around the globe. Look what we
can do! You could do it, too! That
has been the lesson of our history, from 1776 onward.
What example, what lessons,
do we hold forth to the world today? You, too, can make lethal weapons! You,
too, can make war! You, too, can elect “leaders” determined to let nothing be
done to improve your lives, and you can sell off government functions to the
highest for-profit bidders! This is democracy, the best in the world!
